Healthy Lebkuchen Christmas Biscuits!

These Healthy Lebkuchen Christmas Biscuits are vegan, refined-sugar-free, full of fibre, and can be gluten-free and made without butter! Taking 10 minutes to mix all the ingredients in one bowl, they take only half an hour to make! A perfect Christmas gift!

Well, it’s finally the 1st of December! That means it’s officially acceptable to put up festive decorations and dance around to Christmas music! Of course, it also means that it’s time to open the first door of your advent calendar.

Advent calendars are part of building the excitement for Christmas. Each day of the countdown is marked by searching for that day’s little door amongst the jumbled numbers. For some, there will be chocolate behind each door. Also popular are ones with a make-up item, or nail varnish bottle for each day.

Last week, I saw an advent calendar where you get a Christmas-scented candle behind each door!
But usually, we keep it simple and traditional: a picture advent calendar. The best bit is guessing what image lies behind the number!

Personally, I think there should be a baking advent calendar – a new sweet treat every day! Ah well, we can only pretend. For day 1, can you guess what our baked good will be? I’ll give you a clue…

Healthy Lebkuchen Christmas biscuits, of course!

Lebkuchen have got to be one of my absolute favourite Christmas treats! A soft, ever-so-slightly crunchy, chewy, sweet gingerbread cookie with a thin white icing glaze😏. Every year, as soon as the Christmas bug hits, my immediate instinct is to reach for a Lebkuchen biscuit.

First made by Friars in the 13th century, this ‘honey cake’ from pre-Christian times was often enjoyed with a strong beer during Lent. At the time, the spices used to make these (ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, black pepper) were well-known as healing spices to aid digestion and relieve bloating – which is true of our knowledge nowadays!

Traditional recipes for Lebkuchen aren’t actually too bad – already, honey is used instead of sugar, with only 1/2 teaspoon of butter per biscuit!

But as always, I have made a few tweaks.

Instead of refined flour, we’ll be using wholewheat flour. With more fibre and protein, this is more nutritionally packed than normal, refined flour. If you need these to be gluten free, you can instead use a gluten-free flour blend.

We’ll replace half the butter with Greek yoghurt, so there’s only 1/4 teaspoon of butter per biscuit!

Also in the ingredients list are ground almonds, which add a load of good protein.

Less than 60 calories per biscuit, these healthy Lebkuchen Christmas biscuits are brilliant as gifts. My parents and sister enjoyed these so much that they’ve requested for me to make some as gifts for my extended family!

If you wish, you could also drizzle some chocolate over the top (or go for a full coating of melted chocolate!) Or, you could make different Christmas shapes using cookie cutters!:

These Healthy Lebkuchen Christmas Biscuits are vegan, refined-sugar-free, full of fibre, and can be gluten-free and made without butter! Taking 10 minutes to mix all the ingredients in one bowl, they take only half an hour to make! A perfect Christmas gift!

Melt the butter fully in the microwave (or on a low heat in a pan if you don't use a microwave), and stir into the mixture.

Add the Greek yoghurt and extract of choice (if using). Mix well.

Using clean hands, bring the dough together to form a ball.

Break off a piece and roll into a ball (about 2-3 cm diameter). Place onto the baking tray, about 2 cm away from the corner, then gently flatten to make a disk shape. Repeat, leaving 1cm gaps between each disk, until no dough is left.

Bake in the pre-heated oven for 15 minutes. Leave to cool on tray for 10 minutes, before transferring to wire rack to cool completely.

To Decorate:

Mix all icing ingredients in a small bowl. Dollop about 1/2 tsp icing onto one of the biscuits, and spread with the back of a spoon. Repeat for all the biscuits, then leave to set for 10 mins in the fridge.

If you like, melt some chocolate gently in a pan on low heat, then leave to cool slightly for a few minutes. Drizzle over the iced biscuits, then place back in the fridge to set.

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Hi! I'm Katie! Welcome to Katrina's Clean Cooking, where you will find lots of healthy, scrumptious recipes.
I’ve always enjoyed cooking and baking (as well as eating!), so began experimenting with food in the kitchen. Having developed quite a collection of recipes, I decided it would be good to share them with other people!
See you around! x